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Stoke Park Night Event

Another cracking night event, this time over at Eastleigh and, for a change, one that included some woodland in addition to the urban area. However, at the Start, I wimped out and decided to head for the streets rather than the black wood ahead of me. The first few controls were straightforward, apart from the fact that one had to keep crossing to the other side of the busy road due to the fact that there was pavement on only one side. At one point, it took almost one minute to cross the road, such was the traffic – very frustrating.

After about 25 or 30 minutes, it became clear to me that I’d have to head into the woods at some point if I wanted to get a decent points score – there was a 50-pointer in there! So I turned in towards the dark woods and had to readjust to navigating without the benefit of street lights and not being able to see the paths clearly. And the paths were VERY muddy. And it was quite spooky as there was hardly anyone else around. But I trundled on and managed to get the 50-pointer, followed by a difficult 10-pointer hidden amongst some fight, before heading back to the finish via a 20-pointer near the end. It was a long jog (I don’t run very fast!) along a seemingly endless track and I kept on looking at my watch – it was going to be nip and tuck for getting back to the finish before the 60 minutes was up. I struggled a bit to find the last control, and my legs couldn’t go fast enough so I ended up 2 mins 20 secs over time – so I lost 30 of my hard-earned points!

But I still managed to end up joint 19th out of 39 – top half! – so I was pleased enough with that. And we rounded off the evening with a tasty meal and a pint of good ale. What more does one want out of life?!